Amherst College - Jewishhttps://www.amherst.edu/taxonomy/term/2423
enIlan Stavans on His New Books, Latino Life at Amherst and Beyondhttps://www.amherst.edu/news/archives/faculty/node/394304
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">Interview by Peter Rooney</p>
<p><span class="drop-cap2">I</span>lan Stavans, described by his father in his most recent book as “<em>muy</em> <em>prolífico</em>,” is certainly living up to that billing this month. </p>
<p><em><a href="http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/return_to_centro_historico.html">Return to Centro Histórico: A Mexican Jew Looks for His Roots</a></em> (Rutgers), a photo-laden personal exploration of Mexico City’s downtown area, has just been published, along with the 15th anniversary edition of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Latino-USA-Revised-Edition-Cartoon/dp/0465082505">Latino USA: A Cartoon History</a> </em>(Basic Books), updated with a new chapter. Not to be overlooked is the paperback release of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Book-Twentieth-Century-Latin-American-Poetry/dp/0374100241">The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry</a></em> (FSG), a compilation of verse in Spanish and English, with Stavans as editor and Amherst College poet Richard Wilbur among the translators. Stavans also is preparing an <a href="http://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Calendar/54015611?view=Detail&amp;id=4321">exhibition</a> about his fotonovela <em>Once@9:53am</em>, an account of a devastating 1994 terrorist attack against the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 and left hundreds injured. <strong class="red">That exhibit opens Sunday, April 29, at The National Yiddish Book Center</strong> (1021 West Street in Amherst).<!--break--></p>
<table class="table-align-right-gradient" style="width:200px;" border="0" cellpadding="10"><tbody><tr><td>
<div class="mediainline"><span class="inline"><img src="/media/view/154820/standard/ilan.jpg" alt="Ilan Stavans" title="Ilan Stavans" width="197" height="300" border="0" class="image-align-right"></span></div>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table><p><a href="people/facstaff/istavans">Stavans</a>, the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, offered his thoughts on these recent projects as well as a number of other topics, including the evolving diversity of the Latino student body at Amherst and his predictions about Latino life in the United States. An edited transcript of the interview follows below.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="mediainline"><span class="inline"><a href="/media/view/394447/original/ilan%2Binterview%2BKD%2Bedit.mp3"><img src="/sites/all/modules/media/icons/mp3_icon.gif" alt="ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit" title="ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit" class="image-stock"></a><a href="https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/394476/original/ilan%2Binterview.mp3"><strong>Click here to listen to an audio version.</strong></a> <br /><div style="position: relative; display: block; max-width: 300px">
<div id="media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941" class="jwplayer-video">Loading the player...</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function ($) {
var settings = '{"playlist":[{"sources":[{"file":"https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/394476/original/ilan%2Binterview.mp3"}],"tracks":[{"file":"","label":"English","kind":"captions","default":true}]}],"logo":{"hide":true},"abouttext":"Amherst College Multimedia","aboutlink":"https://www.amherst.edu/news/multimedia","aspectratio":"300:30","width":"100%"}';
if (settings.indexOf('#token#') != -1) {
$.ajax({
url: '/ajax/fetch_wowza_token',
async: false,
success: function(data) {
settings_t = settings.replace(/#token#/gi, data);
}
});
} else {
settings_t = settings;
}
var p_settings = JSON.parse(settings_t);
var state_media_d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941 = 0;
jwplayer.key="VA+jZO/Yn2YeN2I4SMPCUWoeHI/fyq41XTyP5ZFdxOM=";
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').setup(p_settings);
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onError(function() {
state_ = 1;
});
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onIdle(function() {
if (state_ == 1) {
$('.jwtext').html('Error loading media:<br />Your browser cannot play this file or you do not have permission to view it.');
}
});
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onSetupError(function() {
var message = $('#media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941 p');
message.html('Error playing video:<br />This video requires Flash to play.');
});
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onPlay(function() {
dataLayer.push({
'mediaFile': 'ilan%2Binterview.mp3',
'event': 'onMediaPlay',
'position':jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').getPosition()
});
});
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onComplete(function() {
dataLayer.push({
'mediaFile': 'ilan%2Binterview.mp3',
'event': 'onMediaComplete'
});
});
jwplayer('media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941').onReady(function() {
$('.jwplay button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwplay');
$(this).before('<label for="media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwplay" class="visually_hidden">Play</label>');
});
$('.jwprev button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwprev');
$(this).before('<label for="media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwprev" class="visually_hidden">Previous</label>');
});
$('.jwnext button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwnext');
$(this).before('<label for="media-d6d4ac690b67dd45c980fe12fa192941-jwnext" class="visually_hidden">Next</label>');
});
});
})(jQuery);
</script>
<br /></span></div>
<div class="mediainline"><span class="inline"><a href="/media/view/394447/original/ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit.mp3"><strong></strong><br></a> <br /><div style="position: relative; display: block; max-width: 300px">
<div id="media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e" class="jwplayer-video">Loading the player...</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function ($) {
var settings = '{"playlist":[{"sources":[{"file":"/media/view/394447/original/ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit.mp3"}],"tracks":[{"file":"","label":"English","kind":"captions","default":true}]}],"logo":{"hide":true},"abouttext":"Amherst College Multimedia","aboutlink":"https://www.amherst.edu/news/multimedia","aspectratio":"300:30","width":"100%"}';
if (settings.indexOf('#token#') != -1) {
$.ajax({
url: '/ajax/fetch_wowza_token',
async: false,
success: function(data) {
settings_t = settings.replace(/#token#/gi, data);
}
});
} else {
settings_t = settings;
}
var p_settings = JSON.parse(settings_t);
var state_media_f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e = 0;
jwplayer.key="VA+jZO/Yn2YeN2I4SMPCUWoeHI/fyq41XTyP5ZFdxOM=";
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').setup(p_settings);
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onError(function() {
state_ = 1;
});
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onIdle(function() {
if (state_ == 1) {
$('.jwtext').html('Error loading media:<br />Your browser cannot play this file or you do not have permission to view it.');
}
});
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onSetupError(function() {
var message = $('#media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e p');
message.html('Error playing video:<br />This video requires Flash to play.');
});
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onPlay(function() {
dataLayer.push({
'mediaFile': 'ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit.mp3',
'event': 'onMediaPlay',
'position':jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').getPosition()
});
});
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onComplete(function() {
dataLayer.push({
'mediaFile': 'ilan%20interview%20KD%20edit.mp3',
'event': 'onMediaComplete'
});
});
jwplayer('media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e').onReady(function() {
$('.jwplay button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwplay');
$(this).before('<label for="media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwplay" class="visually_hidden">Play</label>');
});
$('.jwprev button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwprev');
$(this).before('<label for="media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwprev" class="visually_hidden">Previous</label>');
});
$('.jwnext button').each(function() {
$(this).attr('id', 'media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwnext');
$(this).before('<label for="media-f78415931ff4ca6eb5852ca6941cf72e-jwnext" class="visually_hidden">Next</label>');
});
});
})(jQuery);
</script>
<br /></span></div>
<p><strong>Each of your projects could sustain an hour-long conversation, and they all are coming together in the next month or two. How did this come to be?</strong></p>
<p>It‘s just serendipity that all of these projects have converged. These are projects that have been in the making for some time. The book that deals with returning to downtown Mexico City started as a magazine article two to three years ago. After it was published in <em>Moment</em>, there was interest from the publisher to turn it into a book. And the other projects have been coalescing in one way or another as well.</p>
<p><strong>You dedicate <em>Latino USA: A Cartoon History</em> to your students at Amherst. Amherst College is more diverse than ever and includes about 200 Latinos out of a student body of about 1,800. From your perspective as a faculty member, what are some of the opportunities and challenges facing Latino students at Amherst? </strong></p>
<p>When I first arrived at Amherst in the early ’90s there was already an attempt to diversify the student body, and I have been a happy witness to this transformation. It is not only that there are more Latinos at Amherst, but there are many other ethnic minorities and class minorities from other groups. Some fears [from] members of the faculty that this would decrease our rigor as an institution, that it would water down the tradition of excellence we have upheld for such a long time, have proven to be wrong. We are a much stronger, avant-garde and cutting-edge place today.</p>
<p>It is not an easy task to have a diverse Latino population at Amherst. As an institution, we still have much to learn. Latinos are a very heterogeneous and complex group. This is a minority that is not defined by race, language or a particular geographic location. Because we have those 200 or so Latinos coming from different walks of life, there are issues of education that need to be paid attention to. The fact that that someone comes from a protected, elite school and makes it to Amherst is different than a Latino from a public school who makes it here. That first meeting here between two [such] individuals can be as much of shock as meeting non-Latinos.</p>
<p>There is also a group of Latinos that I think is very important to acknowledge here: undocumented [immigrant] students. This is a population nationally of 5 to 7 million people who are of student age, and almost every higher education institution in this country has undocumented students. It is a fine line to walk—whether we want to call attention to this or not, as a college. It reminds me of the dilemma that a person who is gay has in coming out of the closet. These children grew up here; they are ours. We are at the cutting edge here when it comes to diversity, and with what we have accomplished in the last several years, we have a responsibility to reflect and explore this issue as well.</p>
<table class="table-align-left-gradient" style="width:100px;" border="0" cellpadding="10"><tbody><tr><td>
<div class="mediainline"><span class="inline"><img src="/media/view/390728/original/2012_04_09_RM_IlanStavansBooks_400x267_001.jpg" alt="2012_04_09_RM_IlanStavansBooks_400x267_001" title="2012_04_09_RM_IlanStavansBooks_400x267_001" width="400" height="267" class="image original"></span></div>
<div class="mediainline" style="text-align:center;"><span class="fine-print">A stack of Ilan Stavans' latest projects</span></div>
<div class="mediainline" style="text-align:center;"><span class="fine-print"><br></span></div>
<div class="mediainline" style="text-align:center;"><span class="fine-print"><br></span></div>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Can you offer any insight on what a typical day is like for you, in terms of juggling all the projects that you’re involved with?</strong></p>
<p>I sometimes dodge the question by saying, “Who, me? I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do.” Sometimes I think, “In doing so many things, am I doing them with less attention, less concentration, less talent?” And my answer is, ”No.” There are some of us who spend our lives building one house, and others who spend life moving from one house to another and feeling those habitats are ours.</p>
<p>I think each of us has, maybe, written on [our] foreheads how many words we are going to be able to utter in a lifetime and how many words we are going to write. Maybe somebody up there screwed up the numbers and gave me more than my fair share.</p>
<p>As for my average day: I sleep my regular hours, 7 to 8 hours every night. You’ll see me in the gym. I go running. I have lunch with students or friends or my lovely wife. My weekends are with my kids or with friends watching movies or watching <em>fútbol</em>—soccer.</p>
<p><strong><em>The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry </em>was released in paperback this month, coinciding with National Poetry Month. What was the impetus behind this project?</strong></p>
<p>We often recognize that Latin America has been an engine of extraordinary fiction—great novels, wonderful short stories—as well as great nonfiction books that deal with the magic and the exotic. But this recognition has come at the expense of another extraordinary facet of Latin American literature: poetry. Although Latin American poetry is less well known, the truth is that Latin America is much more than an exporter of fiction. It also is a machine of creating poems where politics and society come together and the exploration of our role in the universe is indulged. I wanted to create a portable library that would allow people to grasp some of the great poetic efforts that have been created over time.</p>
<p><strong>In <em>Return to Centro Histórico, </em>you note that one in 5,000 Mexicans is Jewish, that there are perhaps about 35,000 Jews in Mexico and that [their] typical career paths are medicine, education and business. You also observe that many Mexican Jews are apolitical. Why is that, and does this describe you as well? </strong></p>
<p>No, it doesn’t describe me. I am Mexican, and I’m very thankful for what the country gave my grandparents and parents. I left to come to the United States, but that doesn’t mean I have diminished my love for Mexico.</p>
<p>The Mexican Jewish community<em> is</em> small, insular and inward-looking. It has protected itself by not engaging in larger aspects of Mexican life. Only those who see themselves—and here’s where I fit—as rebels, or children who go against the parameters of their parents, have gotten involved in politics and the arts.</p>
<p><strong>It seems that, in many parts of modern society, religion is not a core part of people’s identity. Yet it became part of yours as you entered young adulthood. How did that process take place? How important was religion to you during your childhood, and how important is it today?</strong></p>
<p>My parents were not really Orthodox Jews. We kept the big holidays, but we were not religious. We lit<em> </em><em>Shabbat candles</em> every Friday night, and our house was kosher, but if we went outside, we didn’t have to keep kosher. For us, culture was a form of religion. The fact that we [spoke] Yiddish and our ancestors were survivors or relatives of those who perished in the Holocaust meant that we had a duty to be Jewish, not religiously but culturally. We needed to prove to those who had tried to kill us that we had endured and survived and there was something inside us that we wanted to keep.</p>
<p>When I discovered religion in my youth, it was more an intellectual than a spiritual endeavor. I was very interested in the mechanics of how theology was built. How did we reach the conceptions of God [such] that we have differences between Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Islam, from an intellectual perspective? I’m a believer, though a skeptical believer: I believe in God, with many doubts.</p>
<p><strong>The <em>Once@9:53am</em> exhibit explores the circumstances of the bombing of the Jewish Cultural center, through the story of a photojournalist who happens to be in that neighborhood the morning of the bombing. It also explores anti-Semitism in Argentina. What is your sense of the prevalence and intensity of anti-Semitism in Latin American countries, perhaps compared to other regions of the world?</strong></p>
<p>Nazi anti-Semitism is very different than Arab anti-Semitism, which is different from American anti-Semitism and European anti-Semitism. That’s why I think it’s time to talk about Hispanic anti-Semitism on its own terms. Going back to the Inquisition, the Catholic Church was manipulating information about Jews as Christ-killers and witnesses of the plight of Jesus. In Latin America, anti-Semitism is also combined with the hostility, mostly in left-wing circles, against the existence of the state of Israel, so anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism sometimes get conflated. What happened in Argentina in 1994 was an anti-Zionist attack that really passes as an anti-Semitic attack. It was against the Jewish Community Center, but it was motivated by forces that came from Hezbollah and Iran. Rather than going against Israel, they go against a community In Latin America that is ill-prepared in terms of security.</p>
<p><strong>The Latino cartoon history book portrays many episodes and highlights of Latino impact and achievement in U.S. history, politics and culture, and the 15th anniversary edition brings things up to date with a new chapter. What do you predict will be the next chapter in Latino USA? A Latino president, perhaps? </strong></p>
<p>[U.S. Latinos number] 50 million people, but I don’t think we can have a Latino president very soon. I hope I’m wrong, but the Latino community remains fractured culturally, politically and economically. That doesn’t mean a vice presidential candidate can’t be chosen. As the election approaches, it would be wise but challenging for the Republican candidate to choose a Latino running mate, because the immediate question would be, “What type of Latino—a Cuban, a Mexican or somebody else?”</p>
<p>Overall, I foresee a couple decades ahead of us in which Latinos finally enter the middle class in big numbers. If that happens, the whole country is going to better off. If it doesn’t happen, it will be bad for the whole country, because we will have a ghettoized Latino class with little access to education, and we will pay for that with riots, protests, increased crime and so on. It’s in the best interest of us all to make room for Latinos.</p>
<p><span class="fine-print">Bottom photo by Rob Mattson</span></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/368">latino</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1509">ilan stavans</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3901">conversations with ilan stavans</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/10808">stavans</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/15168">Latin American Poetry</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/16219">Hispanic</a></div></div></div><ul class="links inline"><li class="sharethis first last"><a href="/sharethis-ajax/394304" class="mm-sharethis">Share</a></li>
</ul>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:01:12 +0000kdduke394304 at https://www.amherst.eduRabbi Bruce Bromberg Seltzerhttps://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/religiouslife/staff/Seltzer/node/45732
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="mediainline">
<div class="mediainline"><img class="image standard image-border image-margin" style="float:left;" title="BruceSeltzerF12" src="/media/view/432141/standard/BruceSeltzerF12.jpg" alt="BruceSeltzerF12" width="200" height="266"></div>
</div>
<div align="left"> Rabbi Bruce has worked at Amherst College as the Jewish Advisor/Hillel Director since July 2002. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College and received an M.A. in Jewish Studies and <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.jtsa.edu/">rabbinic ordination</a> from the <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.jtsa.edu/">Jewish</a> <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.jtsa.edu/">Theological</a> <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.jtsa.edu/">Seminary</a>. Additionally, he has studied Advanced Jewish Studies at <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.pardes.org.il/">Jerusalem's Pardes Institute</a>, <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.schechter.org.il/">Machon</a> <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.schechter.org.il/">Schechter</a> , and the <a style="line-height:19.2000007629395px;" href="http://www.conservativeyeshiva.org/">Conservative Yeshiva</a>.</div>
<p> He previously worked as Chaplain to the College/Advisor to the Jewish Community at Smith College, as Assistant Director of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life/Campus Rabbi at Duke University, the Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director at Drew University and at <a href="http://www.hillel.org/index">Hofstra University Hillel</a>. He has taught at Heritage Academy in Longmeadow and teaches courses as an adjunct at Western New England University.</p>
<p> Rabbi Bruce spent summers during college and rabbinical school working at nearby <a href="http://campramahne.org/">Camp Ramah New England</a> and works there year-round supervising Kosher dining. He plays drums and percussion (rock, jazz, and a little klezmer). He enjoys reading historical fiction, mysteries, the New York Times, and a variety of non-fiction topics. His academic interests include applying the Jewish legal tradition to modern issues, the history of Jewish books, and learning and teaching a variety of Jewish texts. Rabbi Bruce lives in Northampton with his wife Deborah and two of his four children (his oldest is attending his alma mater F&amp;M and another child attends the <a title="American Hebrew Academy" href="https://americanhebrewacademy.org/">American Hebrew Academy</a>).</p>
<p>See thoughts, articles, and links by Bruce at <a href="http://rabbibruce.blogspot.com/">rabbibruce.blogspot.com</a> (This blog is not current).</p>
<p>Connect with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amherst-College-HillelJewish-Religious-Advisor/17453463817">Rabbi Bruce</a> on Facebook. Reach the <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/religiouslife/student/hillel">website </a>or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Amherst-College-Hillel-17453463817/">Facebook page</a> of Amherst Hillel.</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong> Jewish Advisor, Hillel Director <br><strong>Office Hours</strong>: Monday, 3:30 p.m. in Frost Cafe, the Campus Center and by appointment.<br><strong>Contact Information</strong>: Amherst College, Box 2277, Amherst, MA 01002-5000; (413) 542-8270, <a href="mailto:bbseltzer@amherst.edu">Bruce Seltzer</a> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4380">hillel</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/9987">rabbi</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/13961">Amherst Hillel</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/18363">Jewish Religious Advisor</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/18366">Jews</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/18382">Jew</a></div></div></div>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:03:49 +0000rmryan45732 at https://www.amherst.eduhttps://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/religiouslife/staff/Seltzer/node/45732#commentsAmherst College Professor Ilan Stavans To Speak at Jewish Community of Amherst Oct. 30https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2005/10_2005/node/9077
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">October 26, 2005 <br> Director of Media Relations<br> 413/542-8417</p> <p class="text" align="left">AMHERST, Mass.—Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, will deliver the annual Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture on the topic “What Crisis? Jewish Identity in the Diaspora in the 21st Century” at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at the Jewish Community of Amherst (742 Main Street, Amherst, Mass. ) The talk is open to the public and free to students with valid identification. Tickets are $5 for the general public. Refreshments will be served.</p> <p class="text" align="left">Stavans, who has written much about Jewish literature and culture, will discuss the crisis in Jewish identity in light of the many options available to Jews in the 21st century, among them assimilation, nonreligious secular affiliation, religious affiliation with one of the Jewish denominations, Zionist affiliation and political action on the right and on the left. James Young, chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Jules Chametzky, professor emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Rabbi Andrew Davids, the executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists will respond to his remarks. A question and answer period will follow.</p> <p class="text" align="left">Stavans's talk is sponsored by the World Jewish Concerns and Action Committee of the Jewish Community of Amherst, Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Office of Jewish Affairs. Contact Eva Sartori at 413/467-3626 for more information. </p> <p class="text-small-gray" align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1182">lecture</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1509">ilan stavans</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2204">speakers</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3572">yitzhak rabin memorial lecture</a></div></div></div>Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:12:05 +0000daustin099077 at https://www.amherst.eduStanley Fish To Speak on “Liberalism, Identity and Political Choice” at Amherst College April 13https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2006/04_2006/node/8857
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">April 3, 2006 <br> Director of Media Relations<br> 413/542-8417</p> <p class="text">AMHERST, Mass.—Literary theorist Stanley Fish, the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at the Florida International University College of Law, will speak on “Is It Good for the Jews: Liberalism, Identity and Political Choice ” at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, in the Cole Assembly Room (Red Room) in Converse Hall at Amherst College. Sponsored by Re-Think, the Office of the President, the English Department and the Willis Wood Fund at Amherst College, Fish’s talk is free and open to the public. <br><br> One of America’s leading public intellectuals, Fish is a prolific author whose works include more than 200 scholarly publications and books, in addition to essays in such popular press as <em>The New York Times </em>and <em>Harper’s</em> and frequent appearances in the mass media. His books include <em>John Skelton’s Poetry</em> (1965), <em>Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost</em> (1967, new edition 1997), <em>Self-Consuming Artifacts: The Experience of Seventeenth Century Literature</em> (1972), <em>The Living Temple: George Herbert and Catechizing</em> (1978), <em>Is there a Text in This Class? Interpretive Communities and the Sources of Authority</em> (1980), <em>Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies </em>(1989), <em>There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing, Too</em> (1994), <em>Professional Correctness: Literary Studies and Political Change</em> (1995), <em>The Trouble with Principle</em> (1999) and <em>How Milton Works</em> (2001). <em>The Stanley Fish Reader</em>, edited by H. Aram Veeser, was published in 1999. Fish has also had five books written about his books.<br><br> Fish served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University and Duke University, and served as director of the Duke University Press. Fish was a visiting professor at The John Marshall Law School from 2000 through 2002. </p> <p class="text" align="center">### </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1107">law</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1963">literature</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2265">politics</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2401">authors</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2457">Cole Assembly Room</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2537">Willis D. Wood Fund</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2904">stanley fish</a></div></div></div>Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:35:05 +0000daustin098857 at https://www.amherst.eduJewish Studies Scholar Susannah Heschel To Speak at Amherst College Sept. 6https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2006/08_2006/node/8609
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="text-small-gray"><span class="fine-print">August 28, 2006 <br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</span></p><p class="text">AMHERST, Mass.—Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, will speak on “From Theory to Reality: Implications of Feminism for Judaism” at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6, in the McCaffrey Room in the Keefe Campus Center at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Willis D. Wood Fund and the department of religion at Amherst, Heschel’s talk is free and open to the public.</p><p class="text">Heschel, whose scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, received her Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. Her publications include <em>Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus</em> (1998), which won a National Jewish Book Award, and a forthcoming book, <em>The Aryan Jesus: Christians, Nazis and the Bible</em>. She has also edited several volumes, most recently <em>Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust</em> (1999, with Robert P. Ericksen) and <em>Insider/Outsider:</em> <em>American Jews and Multiculturalism</em> (1998, with David Biale and Michael Galchinsky). She also published a volume of her father’s writings, <em>Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays of Abraham Joshua</em> <em>Heschel</em> (1997), with a biographical introduction. Susannah Heschel has also written extensively on feminist issues related to Jewish studies and edited the collection <em>On Being a Jewish Feminist</em> (1983.)</p><p class="text">Heschel has taught at Princeton University, the University of Cape Town and the University of Frankfort. She has been a fellow at the National Humanities Center, and has served since 1999 on the academic advisory committee of the research center of the U.S. Holocaust Museum. She spoke on Judaism and the environment at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro United Nations Earth Summit and at the 1994 Cairo United Nations conference on Population and Development. A frequent commentator on the <em>NewsHour with Jim Lehrer</em>, Heschel also contributes to <em>The Nation</em>, <em>Dissent</em>, <em>Commentary</em> and <em>Tikkun</em> magazines.</p><p class="text">In addition to her academic work, she has written and lectured frequently on Jewish issues, served for several years, with Michael Lerner and Cornel West, as the co-chairs of <em>Tikkun</em>, sits on the advisory board of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom and is an enthusiastic member of the National Council of Jewish Women.</p><p class="text" align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2609">keefe campus center</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2756">Susannah Heschel</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2757">feminism</a></div></div></div>Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:07:27 +0000daustin098609 at https://www.amherst.eduAmherst College Professor Ilan Stavans’s New Film To Premiere at Festival in New York Jan. 10https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2007/01_2007/node/8406
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="text-small-gray"><span class="fine-print">January 2, 2007 <br> Director of Media Relations<br> 413/542-8417</span><br></p> <p class="text">AMHERST, Mass.—The film of a novella by Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College 40th Anniversary Professor at Amherst College, will have its United States premiere at the 16th annual New York Jewish Film Festival on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at 3 p.m. at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on 165 West 65th St. (Additional screenings will be held at the Jewish Museum, on Fifth Avenue at 92nd St.) Directed by Alejandro Springall, <em>Morirse esta en Hebreao</em> (<em>My Mexican Shivah) </em>is a dramatic comedy about family and friends in Mexico City who are mourning the passing of their beloved patriarch. The film is co-produced by John Sayles and Maggie Renzi with a score by the Klezmatics. The New York Jewish Film Festival is presented by The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. </p> <p class="text">Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and spoken in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew, <em>My Mexican Shivah</em> illustrates how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. According to Jewish belief, from the moment a Jew is born, he or she is accompanied by two angels: the angel of light and the angel of darkness. With the passing of Moishe, his family and friends gather to sit shivah, the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual. The spirit angels Aleph and Bet, divine accountants, examine the mourners’ actions and conversations about the deceased to decide which angel will accompany Moishe’s soul to the afterlife. The odds are against Moishe. Family dysfunction aside, his friends are attending for their own motives. Mourners include a Catholic ex-lover, an Orthodox ex-convict grandson and a troupe of mariachi musicians. And to make matters worse, while performing his duties, a member of the sacred funeral society Chevra Kadisha is milking the family for all they’re worth, charging for kosher food, slippers and other shivah goods. <br></p> <p class="text">Springall has produced such films as <em>Cronos</em> (directed by Guillermo del Toro, 1992), <em>Dollar Mambo</em> (directed by Paul Leduc, 1993), <em>Someone Else’s America</em> (directed by Goran Paskaljevic, 1994) and the TV series <em>En Gudalajara Fue</em> (1994). He directed the TV series <em>Jalisco</em>: <em>Tiempo de Decisiones</em>, which won First Prize at the Latin American Biennale three times in a row, and <em>De Tripas, Corazon</em> (directed by Antonio Urrutia, 1995), which was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1996 he founded Springall Pictures, his production company, and made his directorial debut with <em>Santitos</em> (1999), which has received 17 major international awards. Springall provided production services in Mexico for <em>Frida</em>, directed by Julie Taymor. In 2002, Springall produced <em>Casa de los Babys</em>, directed by John Sayles. <em>My Mexican Shivah</em> was completed in August 2006.</p> <p class="text">Read more <a href="http://www.emergingpictures.com/my_mexican_shiva.htm">information about the film and Alejandro Springall</a>. </p> <p class="text">Stavans’s novella was published in <em>The Disappearance: A Novella and Stories</em> (2006). A member of the Amherst faculty since <a name="OLE_LINK1" title="OLE_LINK1" id="OLE_LINK1"></a>1993, Stavans is also author of <em>The Hispanic Condition</em> (1995),<em> The Oxford Book of Jewish</em> <em>Stories</em> (1998), <em>On Borrowed Words</em> (2001), <em>The Poetry of Pablo </em><em>Neruda</em> (2003) and <em>Dictionary Days </em><em>(2005.) </em>Stavans has published the first dictionary of Spanglish, titled <em>Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language</em> (2003), and has debated in public the role language plays in public life and civic affairs for African Americans, Latinos and other immigrant groups. Stavans also published a selection of the interviews that he conducted on <em>Conversations with Ilan Stavans </em><em>on </em>the WGBH (PBS) program <em>La Plaza</em>. He is the editor of the forthcoming <em>Norton Anthology of Latino Literature.</em> </p> <p class="text">Featuring two world, nine United States and nine New York premieres, the New York Jewish Film Festival, running through Thursday, Jan. 25, will present 31 productions illuminating the rich diversity of the international Jewish experience from Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Dramas, documentaries, shorts and comedies including films concerned with art, women, families and alternative families are among the festival offerings. A number of the filmmakers will be in New York during the festival to discuss their films. For ticket information call the Jewish Museum at 212/423-3337 or 212/875-5600 or visit <a href="http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/">www.thejewishmuseum.org</a> or <a href="http://www.flimlinc.com/">www.flimlinc.com</a>.</p><p class="text" align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/270">film</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/909">New York</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/972">spanish</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1509">ilan stavans</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1510">latino studies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2401">authors</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2423">Jewish</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2483">festival</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2625">alejandro springall</a></div></div></div>Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:58:44 +0000daustin098406 at https://www.amherst.edu